David Quessenberry hopes to make the NFL after his career at San Jose State is over. SJSU courtesy photo

The Chargers need David Quessenberry. But they can’t have him. Not yet. If they’re interested, they’ll have to wait for the April NFL draft, when he will become available.

“Now that,” Quessenberry says, “would be a dream come true.”

Quessenberry is an All-Western Athletic Conference offensive tackle and team captain for 24th-ranked San Jose State, but he wasn’t always that.

In fact, nobody seemed to know exactly what David’s position was when he graduated from La Costa Canyon High in 2008.

So much so that nobody really wanted him.

“I didn’t get any scholarship offers,” he says.

He was a “tweener,” a 235-pound tight end who probably didn’t have the speed to play Division I football and didn’t have the résumé as a defender to excite anybody. But Dick Tomey, then Spartans head coach, saw something in the kid and gave him the chance to come to San Jose as a preferred walk-on.

Tomey saw tackle in David, so Quessenberry redshirted his first year, basically to bulk up. It worked. He’s now 6-foot-6, 295 pounds, and NFL scouts have taken notice.

“I just wanted to play college football,” he says. “I was willing to play any position just as long as I could make it as a walk-on. Coach Tomey sat me down and said if you want to play football here, you have to gain weight. I sent out tape. I didn’t fit in the box for recruiting — too tall and skinny to be an offensive lineman and too slow to be a tight end. And I didn’t have enough defensive game film.

“When was I going to fit? I was always confident in my ability. It was more, where is this guy going to play? I put on about 60 pounds. I had a lot of help from our strength coaches. I wore out the weight room. But I ate a lot of food. I mean a lot of food. Not necessarily bad stuff, but a lot of protein. I just ate as much as I could.”

As a redshirt freshman, he basically served as a punt protector on special teams. But by his sophomore year, he was ready, and he was given a scholarship. Now, under Tomey’s replacement, Mike MacIntyre, Quessenberry and the Spartans are 10-2 and headed for a Military Bowl matchup with Bowling Green on Dec. 27 in Washington. It has been a long time since the Spartans have been in this position.

“David is, No. 1, a team leader, and he’s the heart and soul of our offense,” MacIntyre says. “He made such tremendous strides. We put him at offensive tackle and watched him blossom. He worked so hard. He’s just a phenomenal kid.”

Brandon Burlsworth was a walk-on at Arkansas in 1994 and worked his way to All-American status in 1998. He was drafted by the Colts but died 11 days later in a traffic accident. The Springsdale, Ark., Rotary Club now sponsors the Burlsworth Award, which is given to a player who began his career as a walk-on. David was one of this year’s three finalists, the award being won by Penn State quarterback Matt McGloin.